Hortonworks Inc., whose Hadoop software has been a big driver of the current interest in Big Data, raised $100 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion as it prepares to go public sometime in 2015.

The funding round, which was co-led by investment giant BlackRock and the hedge fund Passport Capital, is yet another demonstration of investors’ intense interest in pre-IPO companies and their belief that Big Data is going to produce some big returns.

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